a) How has the school changed since the project started?

-The school has a new waste and recycling management system. 

-The school has started a Green Team. 

-The first stepping stone has been placed in order to create a mini company, as well as a Time Bank at school.

b) What other benefits has the school had?

-Students are more aware of the importance of recycling and the dangers of global warming. Recycling  has started in our school.

-Electricity costs and CO2 emissions will be reduced by the implementation of some energy-efficient measures.

-Both the recycling and the energy-efficient measures can be implemented at home, as we have disseminated the project results throughout the school community.

-A wider range of Open Educational Resources and teaching methods are available. Our innovative and practical teaching methods  have been increased through Open Educational Resources, Project-based  learning, self-learning, flipped classroom, collaborative learning,…

-This kind of project provides teachers with insights into other educational systems, their behaviour, problem-solving strategies and biases, as well as builds teamwork and the European community.

-Living together and meeting with other teachers strengthen the friendship and cooperation relations that we have. This kind of experience helps you get through life better and get on with people. It provides you with life and personal skills such as interpersonal communication, creative problem solving, teamwork, cultural understanding, empathy and the ability to relate to others.

b)  What have been the best and the worst aspects of the project?

-The best aspect is to meet and live together with new teachers, to know new schools with different educational systems, and to help students to broaden their horizons and interests by travelling and working on assigned topics.

-The worst aspect might be that mobilities are short and we didn't have enough time to do more outdoor activities. 

To get a group of teachers more committed to the project and the necessary involvement of the management team and the rest of teachers at school.

- To get teachers more actively involved in the project. To allot duties or tasks to the teachers involved in the project.  For the next school year, teachers interested in joining the project will have to commit themselves to an assigned task at the beginning.

-To establish student commitment to attend meetings as a selection criteria to participate in the project. The level of participation of students should be assessed throughout the project and their marks placed on the academic record.

-To buy a portable wireless microphone, especially for outdoor activities.

- b) At the project

-To establish a transnational meeting before the project starts.

-To organize a wider range of activities, especially outdoor activities.

-To do more activities together in the mobilities in international groups, instead of bringing so many activities done in each school.

-To leave the results done in digital format in the mobilities 

-To apply for longer mobilities.

-To get more school partners.

-To allot duties or tasks to the teachers involved in the project in each partner school.

a) At IES Huelin

-The previous coordinator, teacher of economics, was destined to another school, so I had to upgrade my knowledge about creating a mini company, as that is one of the project topics.

- The flight arrived in Helsinki with a delay and we had to buy new train tickets. I submitted  a compensation claim to Norwegian airline, but they denied it.

-Some teachers and students procrastinated to accomplish certain tasks. In this case, we had to remind them over and over again, and we even had to take charge of the tasks ourselves.

-When students or teachers have been called to a meeting some of them haven`t turned up, not only in the evenings but also in the school breaks.

b) At the project

-The transnational meeting couldn’t be set up in September 2015 because the project money arrived in October, thus we had to postpone it until September 2016.

-We agreed to have the third mobility in Malaga from 25 to 29 April. April 29 was a school holiday in Malaga, but we could arrange the Promalaga UrbanLab premises in the Old Tobacco Factory to host Friday activities.

-We have had some technical problems. We tried to change room or computers. 

-Each school has done their activities in different formats, so during the third mobility we agreed to do them in Word, PDF or PowerPoint. For next mobilities we should discuss more about this.

-Some teachers or students procrastinated to accomplish and send certain tasks or results. In this case, we had to remind them over and over again, and we couldn’t sometimes include them in the group document in order to upload it to eTwinning or VALOR.

-To raise awareness of EU citizenship.

-To build a coherent and stronger EU.

b) Problems that have arisen and how they have been solved by the EC?

-The list of projects funded came out on 13 August. It would be desirable to know the projects approved before that date, in order to better plan the beginning of the project.

-Eighty percent of the budget arrived at the school in late October. It would be desirable to receive it before, in order to set up a transnational meeting in September or October.

-We applied for five days in each mobility, but it will be better to be able to apply for seven days, with five days for working directly in the project, and the other two for the outward and inward trips.

-The technical problems can be improved. For example, whenever you add a result in the dissemination platform VALOR, you can only upload one document, not several documents, as is said in the instructions.

-Teachers and students don’t have any sort of incentives to work in the project.  During the teaching time it’d be desirable for project coordinator to have at least one hour a week to organize and coordinate the project among teachers and students. Students’ level of participation in the project should be assessed and their marks placed on the academic record; even they should have a period a week to work on the project.

- motivation to improve English skills

- higher awareness of educational system in other counties, 

- exchanging experiences with other teachers in solving problems

- a chance to have closer look and sorting out our own  way of teaching, 

-          Involving students in project more

-          Spreading the results of the project- wider perspective, 

-          Using art more often ( not only documents and PP presentations, what about exhibitions, films, songs, art competitions?  , …)

 

-  As above 

-  Interesting subject- possibility to combine two important aspects of everyday life- economy and ecology.

- Problems with communication – language barrier